Texas GOP Takes Dead Aim At Gay Marriage Rights.

In recent weeks lawyers in Texas have been making noises about the Supreme Court not having jurisdiction over the recent state law regarding abortion.  But to this point those were just lawyers.

This new salvo is an escalation against a different civil rights matter, perhaps an indication of the actual leadership’s intent to simply disregard Federal laws on issues they disagree with.  This comes not from lawyers friendly with extremists, this comes from James White of Texas House District 19 in a letter to Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Courtesy of the Dallas Voice key text includes-

“The Constitution and laws of Texas continue to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” and “The State of Texas has not amended or repealed its marriage laws in response to Obergefell v. Hodges … . And the Supreme Court has no power to amend formally or revoke a state statute or constitutional provision — even after opining that the state law violates the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Constitution.”

Also chilling as the Dallas Voice continues is this-

You also need to remember that the Texas Sodomy Law — Section 21.06 of the Texas Penal Code — remains on the books in Texas, despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court struck that law down as unconstitutional way back in 2004.

It has been accepted that once the Supreme Court rules, the unconstitutional laws become null and void.  This fairly well falls under what is called the Supremacy Clause, as noted below by Elwood Dowd.  But my point is that it seems extreme right wing elements of Texas are going rogue.  They don’t seem to care about niceties such as the U.S. Constitution anymore.

Legal experts are encouraged to chip in here, but the Texas GOP is making an extremely dangerous claim, not just for civil rights but for the continued function of the judiciary.  What White is essentially saying is a state could make all sorts of abhorrent laws and the Supreme Court can eat it.  I would not know how to classify that as anything other than legislative secession.  

I encourage experts here once again to explain how I may be misreading this. However if a state is saying Federal law is irrelevant to them, how do we continue to preseve a functioning union with an agreed upon set of principles, particularly those that pertain to civil rights?

The three pillars of the nation, the Executive, Legislative, and the Judiciary are of course the foundation for self-governance in this country.  Unsatisfied with trying to overthrow the Congress and Presidency, it seems some are trying to kneecap the judiciary.  White is not alone.

And Texas Republicans are taking aim at the literal relevance of the Supreme Court of The United States of America.

One can only hope this encourages the court to preserve its own power and strike down all of the overreach coming, primarily, out of Texas.

-ROC

Liked it? Take a second to support on Patreon!

This is a Creative Commons article. The original version of this article appeared here.